A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left.
Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Labour's lop-sided recovery (so far)

Very interesting post on politicalbetting.com showing Labour's recovery is so far rather lopsided towards our core traditional support, which explains why we are still lagging behind more in the marginals than the country as a whole according to the poll in the News of the World at the weekend. The regional splits in the YouGov poll taken recently compared to the one in April show:

Our support up from 28% to 43% in Scotland (remember this is for Westminster elections not MSPs - but it's still an extraordinary shift)Up from 30% to 41% in the North - another remarkable jumpDown from 30% to 29% in the Midlands & Wales.Up from 20% to 23% in the South.Up from 25% to 30% in London.

So we've done a good job at reawakening our historic core support but now we need to also reconnect with the "New Labour" swing voters who gave us victory in the last three elections. Better still let's try to come up with policies that appeal to both sets of voters.

13 Comments:

The NOW poll showing that we're doing less well in marginals than elsewhere is a worry. Maybe Lord A's cash is working its nasty magic.

Dennis Skinner made a typically apposite little interjection during a discussion on ownership of British football clubs during Culture, Media & Sports questions in the Commons yesterday. Hansard reports his words as "Does my hon. Friend agree that, although it is important to keep his beady eye on Abramovich and all the rest of them, it is probably more important in this world of politics, especially at this time, to ensure that bloated plutocrats such as Lord Ashcroft do not own the Tory party?"

Dangerous to read much into poll entrails, but, yeah, you'd expect any increase in Labour's rating since the summer to come from the so-called "core vote", if only because the party that they "defected" to was the Apathy Party rather than a real one...

Political betting is rubbish it is encourages gambling on politics which encourages corruption, and corrutupn. You could end up with asian, Russian and Italian mafias changing political results to make cash. It seems the south of england is the most anti labour. Why is this? Why does the south of england hate labour so much?

NLP have a long way to go to regain their traditional customer. There is now real apathy out there regarding politics. The traditional supporter just see these slime balls in suits patronising them. Although I am not happy with NLP Neo Conservative policies, I definitely don't want a Fascist Tory government in power. I argue with people I find turning to Tory and try to explain what happened between 1979-1997 and what they will do again. From 1997-2008 the NLP went out to appease the middle classes forgetting and betraying the workers, now just look at what gratitude these middle classes have for NLP who bending over backwards for them responding to their every whim, while saying the workers can eat shit! The middle classes are turning their backs on NLP and every day they criticise the government and praise The Tory crap. It's time to change the product to obtain a loyal working class customer. The cabinet should be trained in customer services?

Maybe labour need to find a way of appealing to the south. How about regional devolution for the south and cornwall can have itls own parliament? What could appeal to the southern softies. The party actually has more southerners in top jobs than even scottish or northners so it cannot be image.

I know a lot of Southerners are soft whinging wailing Middle classes, but even in the scum South there are a lot of working class people trapped in poverty and working for peanuts in an expensive area. Then a large population of the South originated from the North to escape the decimation of the North under Thatcherite times.And even in the hard north their are loads of Tories.If we had a Southern devolution and a parliament it would be hijacked by the pampered middle classes and the essential classes would be told to eat shiot, just as what has happened to the LP

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About Me

Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.